A Day in the Life: What a typical day looks like for us (Ryan 17 Months)

I read a few blogs that periodically share these "day in the life" posts and love the idea of having a memory to look back on of what our "normal" looked like at various stages of our lives.

Right now, being at home with one baby will look so different from what our routine will look like in a few years.

And even though we keep a pretty busy schedule during the week, I honestly treasure the days where we have no real plans the most. Because somehow, 17 months with my first baby have already flown by, and I know it's only going to go faster from here.

So here's a look at our last Wednesday, which was a typical, no-set-plans day for us.

Wake up and have my morning time before Ryan wakes up: coffee, quiet time, blog

Cooking "eggies" with my little helper

Ryan played with his toys in the living room while I tackled the laundry and got a Mary Kay order ready to ship. 

These two usually hover close by or play with toys in the living room while I get a few things done

Time to brush our teeth and get ready for the day!

Post office, car wash, and open gym- here we come!

Ryan usually cat-naps in the car in the morning for about 20-30 minutes. I try to plan to be in the car during this stretch to give him some rest time and will just sit in the parking lot of wherever we are going, catching up on email or texts while he rests. Somewhere between the 20-30 minute mark, I wake him up to run our errands so that he'll still get a good solid nap in the afternoon.

Reading some of his current favorite books while we wait at the car wash

Ryan's Aunt Karen got him this book for Christmas and he LOVES it!

We go to a free open gym on Wednesdays for 45 minutes where there are only a handful of other kids who are all under 2, and Ryan loves it! Andrea and Reynolds usually meet us here, but they were out of town this day.

Heading back home for nap and still practicing his skills ;)

Home to see our favorite pup!

Snuggles with some "Coo Coo" (a song from The Sound of Music) before nap

While Ryan naps, I usually clean, organize the pantry/fridge, make grocery lists, eat a snack, fold/steam cloths, pay bills, prep dinner, etc. Currently this nap stretch is between 2-3 hours. So nice to have this built in time to get things done!

While Ryan was napping, I ran over to my next-door neighbor Lizzie's house to snuggle her new little angel baby and check on how she was doing. And before anyone freaks out or thinks I'm insane, one of the benefits of city living in tiny, close-together houses is Ryan's video monitor works in her house- I'm probably closer to his room when I'm inside her house than some of you are to your kiddos' rooms when your inside your own houses- ha! Lizzie is a rockin' mama already! Her sister was visiting too so I got to meet her and hang for a minute before heading back to our house to finish getting things done before Ryan woke up.

The current post-nap routine is reading to Mickey and Tal Tal in his rocking chair when he wakes up :)

Post nap snack- this is typically his only snack of the day. Eating breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner has worked really well for him to make sure his belly is ready for food at meal times. (I read and reviewed a book before Ryan started eating solids that encouraged this plan and it has worked great for him! You can check that post out here.)

Dinner prep! If I'm in the kitchen, Ryan wants to be helping. Here we're chopping onion and snapping asparagus. Well, Ryan also tried eating some raw asparagus, but it wasn't his favorite. ;)

Emptying the dishwasher while we wait for daddy to get home.

Playing toys in the bathroom while I get his bath ready.

We usually do bath together after Matt gets home (as in all four of us, Tal included) squeeze into our little guest bathroom each night), but tonight, I bathed Ryan before Matt got home. He likes sticking his letters on his belly in the tub which is what he's doing here. :)

Daddy's home!!!! Time for hide-and-seek and pyramids and pushups. :)

On nights when Ryan finishes dinner before us, we let him get down and play. He usually hovers right around us, brings toys in, or asks to sit in a big chair while Matt and I finish.

One more "coo coo" song before bed (and a look at the steaming/folding I didn't quite finish during nap) ;)

Getting ready to read, pray, and sing songs before bed. Tally is here for this part of the routine as well (Tally's pretty much a part of every routine if you haven't notice) and if he's not in the room, Ryan will call him to make sure he gets to give him a hug and a kiss before bed. :)

So that's our normal right now! I know I will look back at these posts one day and miss the simplicity of no real schedules and days spent playing inside with a few errands here and there. These days are sweet ones.

If you're looking for a yummy recipe to try, our dinner this night was lobster ravioli (bought from Costco) with the cream sauce from this recipe:

recipe here

and Balsamic Roasted Asparagus that is SO quick and easy

recipe here

Have a great week, friends!

January's Mid-Month Confessions

Happy Friday, friends!

This weekend, my girlfriends are throwing me a little Baby Sprinkle and we're tying in a little college roommates reunion weekend while we're all in town together. I can't wait to get this weekend started!

Elizabeth and I love sharing these confessions with y'all each month. It keeps us feeling light-hearted and sane about our non-ON moments from the month. We're glad you guys like reading them and hope they make you feel a little better about your own less-than-stellar moments. We've decided to cut out the link-up, but we'd love to still hear your confessions in the comments below if you want to share! 

So here goes:

1.

During Ryan's nap yesterday, I decided I would paint my nails in an attempt to step it up a notch for my shower this weekend. I used to have my nails painted all the time, but apparently it has been a loooong time since I've done them or had them done because when I went to get Ryan out of his crib, he kept saying, "nails" and pointing and laughing. Like, "Mom, what IS that on your fingers?!"

2.

Matt was reading this article about this past year's Savannah Marathon (this is the same one he ran 3 years ago) which apparently had to be cancelled halfway through due to temperatures and conditions. He was saying how much it would stink to train for that long and then be forced to quit halfway through, and the whole time he was talking about this major "dilemma" for the racers, I was thinking, "Now THAT would be my kind of race!" haha #perspective 

A marathon will never be on my bucket list.

3.

I was the mom who said I wasn't going to attempt potty training until 3. My pediatrician, who I love, spoke at our MOPs meeting one week and said that you can potty train at 2 and they'll get it by 3, or you can potty train at 3 and they'll get it right away. That philosophy sounded good to me- no need to force things and create unnecessary stress for anybody.

Well, wouldn't you know at 15 months, my little over-achiever of a son started telling us he wanted to "poo-poo potty" and would actually go when we put him on there. And y'all, while I was of course so proud of him and gave him big high fives every time he went, I was NOT excited about his over-eager interest in the potty! This momma does not want to be squatting in front of public toilets with a big ole belly, avoiding getting sprayed in the face by my little man as he proudly tinkles on the potty (best case scenario). Not to mention attempting this little process with a newborn in tow in the upcoming weeks.

Well, after about 8ish weeks of this interest and potty success, I feel bad admitting this, but I am happy to say he has cooled a bit on the potty training. He'll still tell us when he's going and we'll ask if he wants to do it on the potty and take him in there to offer the option, but he's just as happy going in his diaper... and I'm kind of relieved. Am I awful?!!

4.

One day, Ryan and I were walking outside to do one of his favorite jobs, which is pointing out where Tally's poo poo is in the backyard so that I can pick it up. (sorry for the back-to-back poo poo confessions, hah). As we were walking to the yard, I realized he would need a heavier jacket than what I had put on him. So I told him I was going to run in real quick and grab him a coat. Mind you, this was at least week 3 of the picking-up-poop routine and never once had he done anything more than point from a distance at where poop was located. So I ran in to grab his heavier coat and was back outside in maaaybe 10 seconds. 

As I'm walking out to the yard, I see him squatting over something and I think, "Oh. no." Then he stands, holds both hands up in the air, and proudly announces, "Mommy! POO POO!"

In a matter of seconds, he had found the first poo poo and decided to dig his hands, finger nails and all, inside. Ewwww! #momfail #allthesoapanddisinfectingwipesIcouldfind

Okay y'all, I'll leave you with that- as I've either made you feel a lot better about yourselves or made you majorly question my mom skills... or both. ;) 

Have a great weekend!!!

And don't forget to check out Elizabeth's confessions here!

Results from the reader poll + a WINNER!

First of all, you guys gave the sweetest feedback in last week's reader poll! I didn't intend for this little exercise to be an encouraging one, but it really was! And the ideas/constructive feedback you gave were so helpful and great for me to hear as well. So thank you!!!

Twenty of you chose to use the awesome survey that E set up for me, and ten of you shared your responses in comments. I was really happy that 30 of you took time to share your thoughts- so thank you for the feedback!

Here's a quick recap of your responses:

How did you find this blog & how do you keep up with it?

Your responses:

The most common responses were through a friend, another blog (a number of you came here through E which I love!), Pinterest, Google-searching a recipe, or through Instagram. Most of you keep up with the blog through Bloglovin', Instagram, or bookmarking and refreshing the page on your phones. 

What do you like most about this blog?

Your responses:

Travel pictures, day-to-day life, recipes, house ideas (renovations, updates, etc.), favorite finds, honesty, variety of posts and your ability to relate to them, seeing how other moms manage life, personal stories, confessions, and one of you said you live in our same general area and like seeing what we do in the area.

My Takeaway:

That y'all are the sweetest readers ever! My intention behind asking this question was to find out what the most popular topics are, but y'all were pretty clear that you like just about everything I put on here, which was not what I expected to hear. And not only that, you were so sweet with things you said about me and our family. Just sweet, sweet people you are. :)

What don't you like about this blog?

Your responses:

* Posts are sometimes long and can include too many pictures.
* The recipes tab is overwhelming and requires a lot of scrolling to find what you're looking for.
* "More recipes - I feel like we haven't seen as many lately" (I definitely went on a recipe-posting hiatus, but I'm back, and I'm glad you love them!) ;)
* This one cracked me up: "Your son is adorable, and I'm sure people that actually know him like the monthly update posts, but I skip those because they are very long and detailed" (Hahah, true! They are really long and detailed. A couple of you mentioned that these and our family recap posts from holidays are lengthy and picture heavy. I can't say that anything will change with the monthly update posts, as this little online space also serves as my babies' baby books, but I liked the feedback in general on keeping the posts shorter when I can!)
* "I love hearing about your little family and trips you take, but I tend to be less interested in the posts that are about your extended family and friends."
* "I like mostly everything, but I rarely watch the videos you post."

My Takeaway:

* Outside of my "baby book" posts, be more aware of the length of my posts an the number of pictures I include.
* I have a message into my blog designer to help me organize the recipes tab to make it more user friendly. This has been bugging me for a while too!
* I post the videos for family to see, and agree- I rarely watch videos on other people's blogs unless they're close friends! These fall into the "family/baby book category," but I'll be more aware of the number of videos I share.

What do you want to see more/less of?

Your Responses:
* The highest responses for MORE were: Favorite finds, parenting, personal stories, and recipes.
* The highest responses for LESS were: Giveaways and deals
* One person said they'd like to see more crafts and I about laughed out loud. You'll have to go somewhere else for crafts. Recipes take all of my creative energy. ;)

My Takeaway:

* The things I like to write about the most are what y'all like to read about the most- woohoo!
* Favorite finds would be fun to incorporate more than once/month.
* Giveaways and deals don't need their own posts- I can work them in to other mosts that are more fun to write/read.

Again, thank y'all SO much for being so honest, constructive, and just plain SWEET! 

Now, let's find out who won the giveaway!

Lisa Brown, congratulations! You are the winner!

Email me notesftn@gmail.com or leave a comment below and let me know which gift card you would like: Starbucks, Target, or Amazon!

I'll see you all back tomorrow for Elizabeth's and my Mid-Month Confessions posts!